On Writing Notley Nation

DON BRAID: After more than a year's work, the big majority of it by co-author Sydney Sharpe, our book Notley Nation is coming to the bookstores.

SYDNEY SHARPE: Don Braid and I have written three books together. A marriage can only handle one book per decade. (I leave the math to you.) The other five I somehow managed on my own.

RIELLE BRAID: After quite some time of watching my badass mother and father (Don Braid and Sydney Sharpe) work their butts off, their new book is finally out and ready to be read by you!

Notley Nation is, we hope, an even-handed but provocative book that explains how Rachel Notley's NDP rose up, the PCs fell, and Notley quickly found herself in a sea of economic trouble.

There's an important section on the strong female representation in Notley's government, which is entirely new in Canada, and is already creating a tone and style unique to Alberta. (Some will recall that Sydney wrote The Gilded Ghetto:Woman and Political Power in Canada, which the Globe and Mail called the best book on the subject ever written in Canada.)

We also have chapters on Naheed Nenshi and how the movement he started in 2010 presaged Notley's rise. The same forces, we argue, eventually lifted Justin Trudeau into office, but Conservatives both in Alberta and nationally seemed curiously blind to the threat.

We examine Notley's hopeful but ultimately risky relationship with the Trudeau Liberals, as well as climate change policy, pipeline politics, Wildrose, and much more.

In most cases Notley Nation carries the story from before 2015 through to a few weeks before publication.

Notley Nation is published by Dundurn Press, one of the best publishing houses in the country, which has absolutely the nicest people, as well as coolest office in Toronto, on Church Street near the St. Lawrence Market.

We recently had a great time at Calgary Wordfest, discussing politics and our books with authors Noah Richler and Ed Riche. The CBC’s Russell Bowers dutifully herded. We were at Litfest in Edmonton with a lively turnout and Postmedia’s Graham Thomson keeping the peace. November book-signing events are scheduled at stores in Edmonton and Calgary.

We'll be posting event dates and details here, and on Don’s (Don Braid) and Sydney's (Sydney Sharpe) Facebook pages as they come up. Hope to see you somewhere along the line. Book events are a lot of fun, except when nobody shows up!

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Don Braid has been a political reporter and columnist for more than forty years in Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton and Calgary. He has written about every Alberta and federal government since Peter Lougheed and the original Trudeau. With Sydney Sharpe he co-wrote two previous books on politics. Don lives in Calgary.

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Sydney Sharpe is a journalist, anthropologist, and author or co-author of eight books, including The Gilded Ghetto: Women and Political Power in Canada. She was a senior columnist for the Calgary Herald and Calgary Bureau Chief for the Financial Post, and has written for numerous magazines and newspapers and anthologies. She lives in Calgary.

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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.